Chilling with Bears in Bern

Wow I am tired!  I’ve been in Paris the past few days, hanging out with people in my hostel, and they just keep going and going! 

So!  Bern, Switzerland.  I went to Bern because of the LDS temple there.  I stayed in temple housing most of the time, but while I arrived in Switzerland Sunday, I couldn’t check in until Monday (because the temple isn’t open on Sunday).  So I stayed in a hostel my first night.  My first impression of Switzerland was…expensive.  A big mac cost $12!  I could barely find anything under 10 euros, but I shopped at the grocery store the whole time I was there. 

Monday I explored the city of Bern.  It’s small and easily walkable, not to mention beautiful and charming.  I saw the clock tower, the prison tower, and Einstein’s house.  At Einstein’s house, I ran into a dorm mate from my hostel, Ashley.  We hung out the rest of the day.  Einstein’s house was actually quite inspiring.  People were constantly telling him he wasn’t smart enough, and he worked as a professor for most of his life.  After Einstein’s house, Ashley and I visited the clock tower and the bear park.  The bear park was so cool!  Bern actually means "bear." They have fenced-in brown bears wandering along the river.  After the bear park, I grabbed my stuff from the hostel to move to temple housing and settled in the rest of the night.  I was in a six-bed dorm with only one other woman the first night, then by myself the last two nights.

Bern Clock Tower

Einstein's House

Ashley from New Zealand

I was up early Tuesday morning to go to the temple.  I tried to make an appointment, but they told me to just come in at 8:00 AM.  So I did, but they still had to assemble a team of temple workers to help me.   The Bern temple is beautiful.  The rest of the day, I mostly explored the city and relaxed.  I went up to the rose garden, wandered around, looked at the skyline, read Harry Potter, and took a nap.  It was fabulous!  I meandered around the street market.  A nice Peruvian man gave me a scarf!  He got a little too flirty after he gave it to me, but I left quickly.  One of the missionaries I met at the temple told me about institute Tuesday night, and he and his friend gave me a ride.  I walked into the room and, this guy immediately stood up and welcomed me…how sweet :)

For my last day in Switzerland, I decided to check out Lauterbrunnen, a little village Ashley told me about.  I had told her I was disappointed I couldn’t see the Alps from Bern, and she told me all about Lauterbrunnen and its mountains and waterfalls.  I took the train using my Eurail pass, but I didn’t see the signs on my last connection that Eurail wasn’t valid on the last train.  When the woman came by asking for tickets, she informed me of this, and I expected to get hit with a huge fine.  Luckily, she just charged me for the ticket back.  My favorite days so far have been the ones where I find a beautiful little town, and just explore it for a day.  What a gorgeous place.   It has waterfalls coming out of the mountains, an amazing view of the Alps, and the oh-so-charming little church.  I kind of wish I had taken the tram up to the higher villages, but it was over 20 euros.

Behind the waterfall!

I really enjoyed Switzerland!  The next time I come, I definitely plan on visiting Interlocken.

Eh…Vienna

I didn't love Vienna.  I got in and, though my hostel was very close to the metro, there was also a strip club next door.  I went to a laundromat and paid 11 euros to wash and dry my very small load.  I thought city center might be redeeming, but not really.  But it did have a pretty chapel.  By the way, throughout this trip, many of the big landmarks have had scaffolding on them.  In fact, that's how I've begun to pick them out from a distance…"That building has scaffolding, must be important…"

It did have a lego store! 

On Friday, I took a day-trip to Prague to drop off my luggage at the school.  Prague is beautiful and inexpensive, which I'm excited for.  When I got to the train station, I only had about 20 minutes before the school closed and I could drop my stuff off.  I didn't have enough time to figure out the public transportation system, so I had to take a cab…ouch.  I had a few hours to kill before my train back to Vienna, so I wandered around the city, and ate a lot of food.  An hour before my train left, I hopped on the bus…but it was going the wrong direction.  And I missed my train!  I had to wait until midnight for the next one and sleep on the train…ugh.  When I walked into my hostel the next morning around 7:00 AM, my dorm mates asked me if I had gotten lucky.

Saturday, I wandered around the city, and I have to say, my opinion of Vienna improved.  There was actually some cool stuff going on.  Although, the highlight of the trip was……A burger!  There are two guidelines for finding amazing food while traveling:  1.  Find a place with a long line and 2.  You only hear the native language being spoken.  The locals know where the good stuff's at.  

There was a sports carnival in the palace square…cool!

Bubbles!

There was a parade of people praising Jesus.

Falling in love with Salzburg

Mirabell gardens

 Traveling isn't always perfect.  In fact, it often includes a lot of waiting in lines and sitting on trains.  Or in last night's case, sleeping on the train…bleh.  Yesterday was pretty miserable, but I'll get to that in my next post.

I arrived in Salzburg last Saturday, and it was raining.  I walked into my room and tried to turn on the light, but nothing happened…except a man's voice came from the bathroom asking me to turn the light back on…I had forgotten it was co-ed dorm.  His name was David and we ended up hanging out in the hostel the rest of the night because it was raining.  We did run to the supermarket and I made french toast with Nutella.  David is an animator from Australia, and we had a nice, chill night.

Sunday was church and catch-up.  I pulled up a map to the church and asked the girl at the front desk to point me in the right directions.  She looked at the map and asked if I was going to the Mormon church?  Because she's Mormon, too!  Crazy!  So she gave me directions and I was successful in finding it.  I met a cool guy there who plays piano, too, only he improvises on classical music.  So we had a jam session.  I played one of my pieces, then he would improvise on it.  That afternoon I video chatted with some friends at home, which was great.

My brother suggested that in addition to all the pictures I take of cathedrals, I should take pictures of the LDS churches I visit, too!  Great idea, thanks Jeremy!

One of the main bridges in Salzburg.  The fence on the side is covered in locks put there by couples.

Finally, by Monday, the rain had cleared up.  I went to see the city.  I mostly wandered around until I found things.  I saw and went through the Mozart residence and birth house, took a river cruise, saw the  Mirabell Gardens, and went to the zoo!  Salzburg is so charming and beautiful, I absolutely loved it!  Oh!  And for lunch, I had this amazing curry dog.

Mozart's Birthplace

Mozart's Residence

That's how tall Mozart was?!

Tuesday, I saw the Hohensalzbrug Fortress and went up the cable car into the Alps and hiked around a bit.  I met a group of 4 middle-aged couples from Indiana who kind of adopted me for the day.  They were so sweet to me!

View from the fortress

On Wednesday, I visited the most beautiful place on earth…Hallstatt.  A few months ago I was browsing places to visit in Europe, and I came across a picture of this little town called Hallstatt.  I basically went to Austria just so I could see this place, and it was completely worth it.  It's the oldest salt mine in Europe, a little mining town nestled in the Alps on the edge of a huge lake.  I got there and explored the town a bit, then hiked up to the salt mine.  I can't believe places like this exist:

Story of my life:  I can only find half a man ;)

After a great day in Hallstatt, I went to LDS Institute and had a great time with some LDS people my age :)

Romantic Venice

I’m writing this from the train to Salzburg (and while watching How I Met Your Mother…don’t judge!).  I really like traveling through Europe by train.  The views are amazing.  It’s so green and mountainous.  It reminds me of Utah…the mountainous part, anyway.  I’ve been lugging around this suitcase with the hope of actually finding a job and moving here.  I think it’s messing up my wrist L  Luckily, I’ll take a day trip to Prague while in Salzburg to drop it off…hallelujah!

 Venice.  Venice was romantic and beautiful.  My hostel was right next to a canal, very close to city center.  I didn’t spend as much in Venice as I did in previous cities, probably because I never took public transportation.  My hostel was within walking distance of everything.  I arrived on Thursday, dropped my stuff off at my hostel, and went straight to a free walking tour of Venice.  On my way to the meeting spot, a man stopped me on the street and said, “Excuse me…you are so beautiful…I am shocked at how beautiful you are.  Can I take you for a drink?”  I politely thanked him and declined.
 

 An Indian guy named Florence started talking to me on the tour, and when we took a fifteen minute break, he offered to buy me some coffee.  I told him I don’t drink coffee, but that I’m hungry, and he got me lasagna instead.  I ate it as fast as I could, and we were only 2 minutes late to meet the group, but they had already left.  So we continued walking around together.  We went to Piazza San Marco and listened to live music, ate gelato, walked along the canal.  It was very romantic, except that he was really into me, and I was not really into him. 
 

 We found a museum dedicated to Monteverdi with all sorts of old instruments…it was so cool!

For my full day in Venice, I had 4 goals:

1.     Meet up with Cameron, my friend from Utah who happened to be in Venice at the same time.

2.     Take a ride on the canals.

3.     See Monteverdi’s grave.

4.     Find a reusable water bottle.

I got 2.5.  I met up with Cameron and we grabbed breakfast and walked around the city a bit.  He had to go meet up with his family, so I set out on my own.  It was raining and cold, but I went to my hostel and bundled up.  I think I looked more like a local that day…not as many strange men hitting on me or even just checking me out.  I think I blended more, which was kind of a nice change. 

I went to the church where Monteverdi is buried, and after some searching finally found it.  The church was beautiful and had some beautiful artwork and sculptures for only 3 euros. 

I googled gondola rides, but they’re really expensive!  My tour guide told us about boat rides similar to gondolas, but they’re used to get up and down the Grand Canal.  It’s called the Traghetto.  I found a stop, but it was closed!  So I didn’t ride on the canal.

I literally spent all day looking for a reusable water bottle.  I left my water bottle on the plane, and I could NOT find one anywhere in Italy!  Wait, that’s false.  I finally found one in the Nike store, but it didn’t have a clip or hook of any kind.  Towards the end of the day, I found a cute and colorful store that sold mostly kids’ stuff.  I found a collapsible water bottle, which will work until I find a better one.  So I count that as half a win.

This last pic I snapped when I was looking at my phone trying to find my way back to my hostel, when  a tour guide came and stood right next to me and continued his tour and all the people swarmed around me.  I thought it was funny!